Its future may be uncertain, but the Ché Café is looking a bit brighter these days following touch-ups from artist Mario Torero and dozens of helpers.

“We washed it, dusted it off, then coated it in vinyl, and it brought all the colors out again that were buried under a thin layer of dust and age,” Torero said, looking at one of the murals he painted on the café at the UC San Diego campus in 1993.

“We dared to put Karl Marx up there,” he said, recalling the stir the images made. “This was probably the first place in the United States where that was done. In UCSD? In San Diego? What’s going on? Are the communist taking over?”

Torero said the portraits were not intended to imply support for any ideology as much as to promote the value of free discussions about different beliefs.

John Gastaldo

Artist Mario Torero walks past a mural of Angela Davis he painted at the Che Cafe in 1993. Torero returned Thursday to touch up his original artwork.

Artist Mario Torero walks past a mural of Angela Davis he painted at the Che Cafe in 1993. Torero returned Thursday to touch up his original artwork. (John Gastaldo)

“It’s about freedom,” he said. “We’ve been brainwashed so well all our lives that we know what we’re not supposed to talk about. We don’t talk about Palestine. We don’t talk about communism. Marxists.”

The 35-year-old cafe, a worker’s collective that also serves as a social center and music venue, is housed in a 72-year-old building that has been ordered closed by UCSD after a long legal fight centered on safety issues.

A Superior Court judge ruled Nov. 4 that the Ché Café Collective had forfeited its lease and the university had the right to assume possession of the building.

Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez asked for a voluntary evacuation of the building by March 14, and sheriff’s deputies posted a notice to clear the building by 6 a.m. March 24.

Since then, a number of students and supporters have been occupying the building around the clock in anticipation of a possible physical eviction from deputies.

Just when deputies may arrive is unclear. Sheriff’s Capt. Hank Turner wrote in an email to the U-T on March 23 that the department has a six-month window to carry out an eviction once a notice is served.

Also unclear is what people inside the building have planned if deputies arrive. Turner Smith, a 2013 UCSD graduate and member of the collective, said the occupation is to show the university that support is strong for the cafe, a move they hope will lead to the eviction being called off.

“We want the university to end the eviction process and move forward on supporting the collective and cafe,” he said. “We’ve long felt the administration hasn’t supported us. Obviously, if you’re posting an eviction notice, you don’t seem to value the collective or café.”

On Thursday, Torero was helped by students, alumni, supporters and several children as he touched up the murals. Student Aurash Gomroki painted the lyrics to “The Internationale” on one wall while his friend Tanner Sims painted “You may paint over me, but I will still be here” on another.

Sims also painted an image of Charlie Chaplin that he said was inspired by the rousing speech about freedom at the end of the movie, “The Great Dictator.”

UCSD graduates David Morales, class of 1996, and Arnie Schoenberg, class of 1989, also were at the café Thursday to show the support of the collective where they worked when they were undergraduates. Both said they hoped the occupation would persuade UCSD administrators that there continues to be strong support for the cafe, and evicting the occupiers could make the university look bad and even cost them donors.

Attorney Bryan Peace said Thursday that he is waiting for court transcripts before he can move forward with an appeal. Peace said the appeal would argue the university pursued an eviction without holding a dispute-resolution hearing as required by an agreement with the collective.